Religious Studies

The history evidences: the Local Churches that were historically associated with earthly empires were uninterested in the canonical establishment of local churches under their jurisdictions, and therefore usually granted autocephaly to churches only under the pressure of historic circumstances. No exception is the Moscow Patriarchate, which has incorporated the Orthodox Church in Ukraine since 1686.

Ukrainian Orthodoxy and Ukrainian society suffer from division. The majority of Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. The rest of the Orthodox community of Ukraine has chosen a different path of self-proclaimed autocephaly. However, neither the first nor the second path is optimal for the Orthodox Church in Ukraine to date.

UGCC priest is released from captivity

Father Tikhon Kulbaka, a priest of the UGCC on Donetsk, who had been captured by the terrorists in early July, is now free and there is no threat to his life. It was reported by protestant pastor Serhiy Kosyak on his Facebook page.

“Dear brothers and sisters and everyone who prayed and was anxious about Greek-Catholic priest Fr. Tikhon (Serhiy Kulbaka), Fr. Tikhon was released and stays in a safe place”, he reported.

Serhiy Kosyak stated that the Greek Catholic priest is depressed. He was threatened with death in the captivity.

His emotional condition is very depressed and he is physically exhausted. When I talked to him, he was crying as a child. I won’t go into details about his release and the conditions in the captivity, but is man has faced death several times and might have reconciled with it. Thanks God, Fr. Tikhon is alive and free.